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POLITICO 44

As President Barack Obama pitches his new war strategy to send another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, public support for the war has surged.

National support for the war in Afghanistan has spiked 9 percentage points in the last three weeks, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll of 2,313 registered voters that was released Tuesday.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said they now believed the United States was doing the “right thing” by fighting the war in Afghanistan, up from 48 percent in a similar survey released Nov. 18.

“President Barack Obama’s nationally televised speech explaining his policy and troop buildup has worked, at least in the short term, in bolstering support for the war effort and his decisions," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Republicans overwhelmingly said they supported the war in Afghanistan, according to the poll, with 71 percent saying the country was doing the right thing compared to 21 percent who said it was not.

Democrats were near evenly split, with 47 percent supporting the war and 46 percent opposing it.

Support for Obama’s handling of the war also increased dramatically, rising from 38 percent to 45 percent in the last three weeks.

Looking at the president’s whole portfolio of national security decisions, 46 percent of those surveyed said they approved of his handling of his job and 45 percent did not.

Awesome move by President Obama in showing he's not one to mince words. In August of 2008 then Senator Obama said he believed our biggest mistake was to take focus out of Afghanistan, we got distracted by the war in Iraq. So it is nice to see he's not taking back his commitment to ending this war, that should've been our only focus to begin with. No the senseless war in Iraq. He's done everything he's said he would do as a Senator, he's attempting to get Health Care reform, he promised to withdraw troops out of Iraq and refocus them in Afghanistan which he did. He's attempted BiPartisanship, but when those in the Republican leadership black list any Republican willing to work with the president that is impossible, and then they scream where's the bipartisanship? Give me a break, it doesn't exist because you won't let it. He's focused his attentions on the economy, creating jobs, and fixing infrastructure. He promised a greener America, which he's working on now. He also is focusing his efforts on technology and education to make America's youth more competative in the world. Everything I voted for him to do he's doing. But too many Americans are so willing to listen to BS than to actually do the research on their own.

Taking military pressure off gihadists in their home regions is not a good idea. Neither is a Vietnam-style escalation to prop up a corrupt regime. The only answer left is for NATO to be the harasser of the Taliban element, not the occupier of Afghanistan -- saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; awesome satellite view of earth

It is almost 5pm CT already and only 7 comments on Support for Afghan war? Wow yeah Americans are really excited about sinking deeper into the Afghan mire. Success just comes natural to Americans everything they touch turns to gold!

Personally, I'd prefer that this war is finished and our troops are safely home and working on national security issues here at home.

But what do I know? May be Obama and all these people supporting his Afgan strategy are right.

I am terrified to think of the parents who are about to lose their children in Afganistan. I am saddened to think of all the innocent American kids who are about to lose their parents in Afganistan. War kills and destroys people; there is nothing romantic about it.

Ok, here we go with the hypocrisy, the thread about his poll ratings are full of retards going on about how doomy and gloomy and socialistic the world has become, whine whine whine. Here we show a spike in approval for something that was going south and what do we get again from Politico wingnuts?

Romantic? Obama is in love with being in Afghanistan with his war machine it is an indissoluble romance indeed! We have been promise a happy ending too and of course all you suckers will believe that too.

Bravo for all the people that are not being hypocritical about the surge. If you support our troops, you should support the surge and our commander in chief.

As for Obama, its no secret that I think he is great. Its funny that we elected him because he said he would move beyond the petty infighting we've seen the last 20 years. He promised not to listen to special interests and to do what he thinks is right for the country. Now everyone's mad because he is not listening to their SPECIAL INTERESTS. Ha - thats change I can believe in! I'd rather he listen to none than a few.

I am afraid Obama is being led down a long painful path by the generals. I have great respect for Robert Gates -- he was a blessing after Rumsfield -- and I think Obama is trying to do the right thing but I don't believe this will ever be over -- look at Iraq. We still have troops there and the bombings are still going on. Afghanistan is completely different -- this place has been a quagmire for other countries and no one has been able to win there. Plus, we are engaging in nation building and we should not be going down this path. It's gone on too long, we didn't do the right thing in the first place, and we are dealing with a very corrupt government. Many of our former Presidents and politicial leaders must be rolling over in their graves. I totally support our troops and we have many friends who have served or are over there but I have also heard military folks express doubt about this mission and the fact that we didn't do the right thing in the first place.

I am afraid Obama is being led down a long painful path by the generals. I have great respect for Robert Gates -- he was a blessing after Rumsfield -- and I think Obama is trying to do the right thing but I don't believe this will ever be over -- look at Iraq. We still have troops there and the bombings are still going on. Afghanistan is completely different -- this place has been a quagmire for other countries and no one has been able to win there. Plus, we are engaging in nation building and we should not be going down this path. It's gone on too long, we didn't do the right thing in the first place, and we are dealing with a very corrupt government. Many of our former Presidents and politicial leaders must be rolling over in their graves. I totally support our troops and we have many friends who have served or are over there but I have also heard military folks express doubt about this mission and the fact that we didn't do the right thing in the first place.

Hey, here's an idea America. If you want to improve foreign relations and stop terrorism, maybe stop fight the symptom and start to address the problem. Terrorism is not a random act, but a reaction. A response. We can agree that it's a bad response but that doesn't change the fact of what it is. We've had our foot in their backyard for 100 yrs stirring up all sorts of trouble and basically destabilizing the region. Then we support Israel and it's illegitimate formation and then ARM THEM and we wonder why they want to kill us? Must be because we're so "Free". Let's face the fact that they didn't come here first, we went there. So instead of supporting more killing, and creating more terrorists in the process to help support the administrations perpetual "War on terror" we just get the hell out of there completely and let their governments evolve without an American made yoke around their necks. The age of Empire and "America can do no wrong" is past. If you want peace, and I mean really want peace, first you have to stop killing. Wake up.